February 17, 2012

Great wools and silks that had been hibernating in the bottom of that foot locker, some of it for almost a decade.

I have rewound over ten lace weight balls already, checking for breaks and chews and eggs and moth sign.

These moths must have been in there a long time ago, besides the five I have had to chunk, everything else, so far, has been ok.

Granted, I am not even a third of a third through pulling out bags of yarn to be rewound but I am feeling better about it. I assumed almost everything would end up getting chunked (literally) but things are starting to look up.

I am not sure if I am going to freeze the yarn or not. I haven't seen any eggs at all except in the balls that I already threw away. Maybe as I get closer to the bottom, the crime scene will get worse.

For right now, believe it or not, I am having a good time checking out all these "new again" yarns I have.

Of course my first instinct was to start shopping around to replace my lost yarn. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that is a dumb ass idea! I have plenty, and tho losing any of it sucks REALLY BAD, there is no reason to start 'filling the holes' so to speak. ;0)

February 16, 2012

At my house, I have a foot locker. A big foot locker. It's about 3 feet long and 2 foot high.
It is filled with some of the most beautiful yarn I have ever been lucky enough to run through my fingers. Lace weight shetland wool, 100% wool hanks, wool blends, silk and wool blends.
Filled from floor to top.
As I posted yesterday, I had decided to rip out the Birds Nest Smoke Ring and re-knit it with a finer yarn.
I was super excited as I got home from work and decided it was time to dig through the foot locker and find some nice soft, light and airy fingering wool. I went straight to the bottom. It's kinda of like going to the back of the closet to dig out stuff you haven't worn in forever. All the good and forgotten stuff was on the bottom.
I found a white postal shipping bag with the yarn and pattern for the Flirty Ruffles Shawl. You remember that one don't you? A beautiful lacey creation loaded with ruffles around the bottom. The yarn was soft and would make the perfect cowl.
But wait.....my ball of yarn looks like a porcupine! Ends sticking straight up all over the ball. WTH!
I started unraveling and pulled out strand after strand of chewed up yarn!! OH SHIT!
I started pulling out bag after bag of yarn, beautiful, soft, lace weight wool yarn. Do you know how many yards are in a ball of lace wght. wool??? A frikkin LOT!
As I sat in the floor in my closet looking at all my wasted yarn, I almost (almost) cried. I cussed,I threw things around, I ripped bags open and created one hell of a tangled up mess with the loose hanks that were sitting on top.
MOTHS!!
No live moths, no eggs, but the destruction of moths past was evident in my yarn locker. I am sure when I finally reach the bottom of the locker I will find little dead moth bodies littering the floor. GOOD! Bastards, I hope they choked on all that wool.
So, once I finished with my little hissy fit, it was time to get down to business. I called PB and asked him to stop by Wally World and get me some cedar balls and some of those huge ziploc bags.(better late than never)
Everything would have to be taken out, looked over and rewound to check for holes, eggs and anything else those little bastards may have left behind.
As of last night I have had to throw out five hanks of lace weight wool that came with patterns for shawls. I have rewound 2 hanks of lace weight (which BTW takes for ever! Lots of yardage in lace weight.)into balls and placed them in a big ziploc. Since I rarely ever use my yarn for what it was bought for, there is no problem throwing a bunch of different yarns in one bag without the patterns.
Ultimately all of this means, no knitting for the next two weeks as I get everything out and rewound and stored back up.NO KNITTING! Now I really have it out for those mothy bastards. I was on a roll, my fourth project of the year and it is only Feb. Ugghhhh!
I don't know how much more I have lost, I will let you know the grand total when I figure it out.
Heed my warning peeps...........................................
A $3 box of cedar balls from Wally World can save you a lot of time and money later.
Buy them, use them, place them like garland around your front door and all your windows, wear it around your neck.........
Oh, wait, sorry, ....
Don't be like me, I thought my yarn was safe, in a locked foot locker in the back of my closet.
I don't know if there were eggs in something when it was shipped to me or if one got in the house,past the four rooms and closed closet door, under the lid of the metal footlocker to get to dinner!
Trust me, spend the $3, it's worth it.

February 15, 2012

I went stash diving again yesterday. What floated to the top?? Well that's a good question.

I remember I bought this yarn to do some kind of candle flame sweater, and it is the yarn that was actually called for in the pattern. It is some kind of cotton silk blend and closer to a ww than a dk.

The pattern calls for a fingering yarn, and I don't think this yarn is going to get it. It looks great in the pattern, well what I have gotten so far. But I want my cowl to be more drapey. So....

For the like, ten hundredth time, this yarn will become part of the frog pile.

Poor yarn, one day a pattern will call your name.

Stash diving again!! Woohoo!!

BTW, for those who were all upset about my post yesterday, you will be happy to know, I purchased a pattern today. Had to have it!

February 14, 2012

I have noticed a growing trend in patterns recently on Ravelry, and anywhere else you can order patterns. They are getting waaayyy to expensive. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem buying a pattern. The one above is a purchased pattern. But it was also a respectable price.

What I have noticed is that the same pattern for, say a pair of socks, three years ago would have cost you anywhere from $2.50 to $3.00 depending on the designer and the detail, that pattern now is going to run you about $7.00 or heaven forbid, I've seen some for $10.

I understand that designers need to make a profit, but really, has the price of creating a pdf file went up so much that it costs more to create a downloadable pattern?

This Top Down Encore jacket above, $3.99. Now to me that is worth it. It has multiple sizes, and had I seen it a year ago, this one pattern would have lasted me through four stages of grandkidom.

To me it would have been worth it at $5. But $10? No, I would have hunted around the internet until I found a free pattern that looks just like it. Knitters are a crafty bunch, someone, somewhere can look at your pattern and figure out how you did it, then post a free pattern for everyone to share.

And OMG don't tell me I can't sell something from a pattern I bought from you! That drives me nuts! It's my pattern once I buy it, mine to use, work with and do with MY finished product what I want!

Don't freak out, I don't sell my knitting, then it would just be work.

But come on, there are way to many free patterns on the internet to tell me what I can and can't do with my own knitting.

You sold me the pattern, not the yarn, the time to knit it and the finished project.

How would we all be if yarn designers said, you can knit with my new colorway but you can not sell anything knit with my colorway! Really!

February 13, 2012

I know that my opinion basically only counts to me. And trust me, sometimes even I think my opinion is an idiot and needs to shut up.

BUT....I can not be the only one who thinks that these life like baby dolls are just frikkin' creepy.
Babies look like little wrinkled up old men and yes even the girl babies, for at least a few weeks. Why would you want one of those, frozen for all time.

You see them all over Ravelry, yes I know most people think they are adorable and sweet. But not me.
I think they are down right creepy and the more I see them, the creepier they get.
Babies are bustling little balls of impulses and spaz attacks. These are just lifeless little garden gnome looking things.

It's getting really hard to tell the real babies on Ravelry. So, if you do use a real baby shot, you might want your kid to be doing something, anything. Because, no matter how cute, if your baby is curled up in a little naked ball, I'm assuming it's one of those creepy babies. You really can't tell the difference, that's how life like those creepy things are. And now I assume every baby I see asleep is one of those things.
Sorry peeps, IMHO, those things are just downright creepy!

February 10, 2012

This picture was taken Saturday. Since then I have finished with the collar and last night, gotten down to about two inches of the first sleeve. I hope to have it done for her by the next time they come to stay with me.

I have to get to Wally World and see what kind of interesting and fun button I can find for her.

Isn't that the most beautiful smile ever! Yeup, she looks just like me!

February 3, 2012

Isn't this like the coolest picture ever. I know she isn't knitting, but look at her, I bet she does knit when she isn't playing with dragons.

When I first saw this I thought it was a picture of the girl from Game of Thrones. She looks a lot like her.

On the knitting front, once again, well actually twice since I last posted, I had to frog Bella's sweater. The first time I messed up my raglan increases because I was watching a horror movie and I got so into it that the needles started doing their own thing. Which normally would be ok, except this time, I guess they were scared too, because we came out with something that wasn't anywhere close to increases as much as random stitching. Then, once again it had to be ripped out because I was talking with one of the girls and lost track of my rows and increased too many times. Normally I would just frog back the rows and then pick up all the sts with my needle. But yesterday that just seemed like too much of a hassle, so once again, I ripped the whole thing out and started over. I think I have it this time though. I am all the way passed the division for the sleeves and working on the side increases.

The only reason it has not bothered me to do all this frogging is because this really is a quick knit. With Red Heart yarn and size 8 needles, it doesn't take any time at all to get back to where I was originally.

I am going to try it on Bella Boop when she gets home today just to make sure I got it right before I complete the body. I will get some action shots then.

February 1, 2012

The sweater for the girls was going along great! I was almost finished with the body of the sweater and it just didn't seem right. My gauge was spot on, the numbers were all correct, but dang if this thing didn't look like it could swallow my girls.
I retrieved one of Trin's jackets from the dresser and I learned something. Another wrinkle in the brain.
Kids size five at Wally World is a lot smaller than a size five hand knit sweater.Soooo......
Once again to the frog pond, (where I am apparently going to have to rent a chair)
I am going to re-cast for a size smaller, which BTW is the perfect size for Bella and Trin.
So fair warning ladies and gents, no matter what size your child wears and what size you think you should knit, pull out a favorite sweater or shirt and check the measurements. Better safe than swimming in the pond with the frogs. But Hey! if you do show up, tell 'em Leah sent you, they know me well1